


We Are Safe

by Perelka_L



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Episode: e032 Yellow Helicopters, Gen, Spoilers, Strexcorp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-09
Updated: 2013-10-09
Packaged: 2017-12-28 22:38:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/997739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perelka_L/pseuds/Perelka_L
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Right now all StrexCorp was for Cecil were empty phrases on yellow paper and a gun's barell pointing at his spinal cord.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Are Safe

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'ed. Somewhere I saw an idea that Cecil was so scared at the end of Yellow Helicopters because somebody forced him to read statement out loud at gun point. I just went with it.

A barrel of a gun is cold against his neck. It is moving, slightly, up and down, as if the one holding it is reminding Cecil that this weight is here, threatening, a silent warning.

Cecil can’t see a person holding this gun, he – or she – is standing behind him. There is a reflection in a glass opposite him, but inside of a studio is dark, too dark for Cecil to see. Only a gun is shining with red light coming from familiar “On Air”, both seen on the surface.

A swallow. A final look at words that he was supposed to say. Wide black letters on yellow paper are burrowing into his mind in milliseconds. The statement covered a leaflet he had in his hand barely few seconds ago, leaflet that brought this strange similarity that terrified him to the very core.

“Dear listeners, we must issue an apology. Those helicopters are completely…”

A gentle push. Now slightly warmer gun was digging between his cervical vertebrae.

“Safe.”

He snapped jaw shut after the word was said, tasting the lie on his tongue. It was disgusting. He carried on, glancing at black words, feeling the steel getting warmer and warmer. Lies and lies, all of it. He didn’t understand how StrexCorp managed to get their hands on his beloved Night Vale Community Radio, what StrexCorp _even was_. Right now all it was were helicopters, lies and a gun. It was still here.

He was very much not glad. He hated this taste and this touch.

After the final Goodnight Cecil realized he didn’t feel it anymore. A gun. When he touched his neck in this place, he could feel a slight change in skin’s texture, a subtle warning that steel wasn’t merely a creation of his imagination.

Cecil stood up and turned. Night Vale Community Radio Poster was no longer hanging on the wall, no longer he could see a familiar eye hanging above familiar radio tower, all in familiar shades of violet.

There was only an orange square, but whatever was on it was a blurred mix of black and yellow and red and Cecil realized he started to cry. Sadness, fury, anger, confusion and out of all it was the helplessness that suffocated him, made him feel so vulnerable. Like then, when Carlos…

It was all a blur, going out of radio station, to the car, standing in front of door to Carlos’ lab. His hands, cheeks, forehead and nose were wet with tears and there was not a single second that passed between Carlos opening the door and Carlos enveloping Cecil in a warm hug.

Lies still tasted wrong, especially now, against those lips. Someone said that the lie repeated thousands of time becomes the truth, but it was Night Vale, here a lie repeated thousands times is accepted as a lie and maybe, _maybe_ Carlos will see.

“We are safe, Carlos, we are safe.”

**Author's Note:**

> I thought about writing it longer, adding maybe another thing I've found - that Cecil will be re-educated on the radio (Remember his "stay tuned next"?) but it was a bit too drastic for me. Oh well.  
> Thank you for reading.


End file.
